Even the Palm Trees were Nice
This last weekend turned out to be be much better than expected. Jenn and I spontaneously decided to drive down to Miami and visit our families. We left late Friday afternoon and didnt get in until 11:30 or so. The next day I went to Vizcaya with my Mom and Dad. We took Old Cutler instead of US1 because its much more scenic and I found myself really enjoying Miami for the first time in a really long time. Usually my visits just remind me of all the things I'm glad to be rid of - heavy aggressive traffic, incredibly rude people everywhere, concrete and palm trees. But the weather was perfect; cool and windy enough to be comfortable but sunny enough to feel the heat on your face and remind you your in Miami. The houses and and mansions are lovely and things were green and blooming.
Vizcaya itself is beautiful as well. What was really impressive to me was the structure itself, not its contents. Vizcaya is a mansion styled after an Italian palazzo. It has a courtyard in the center open to both floors (and the sky at one point) that takes up a good amount of the overall space. The home had intricate marble floors, stonework in so many colors and patterns. Most of the courtyard used carved limestone or coral rock. I loved that so much stone was used because it made it feel organic. It also was nice that it was so cold to the touch given Florida weather. The ceilings were also incredible. Complicated patterns, motifs running throughout -lots of mythical creatures or ocean creatures. The furniture and decorative pieces were a bit more ornate and over the top than I'd prefer, but overall it was lovely. The gardens were as impressive as the house. And having that great ocean view doesn't hurt either. I didn't realize how much I missed the ocean. I wound up walking over to the gazebo that is at the end of a short pier and taking off my shoes and just sitting with my feet in the saltwater for a while. It was all I could do to stop myself from jumping in. I guess there is a little bit of Miami girl still in me.
After that we went to my brother's house to visit with him, his wife Liz and their son Layne. He's 2 and has the cutest mop of perfect light blond hair. I'm never really sure how to interact with him at first because I know I'm just a stranger to him and I dont want to just pick him up and play with him because I dont assume he's comfortable with that. I tend to let him come to me after a little while. eventually he started sitting on my lap and showing me toy cars. Greg's coffee table isn't completely level so the toy car would roll on its own into a book on the table. Every time it neared the book I would open my mouth and sigh in anticipation and say "BINK!" when it actually hit. He liked this very much and kept getting the car ready and he would look at me when it got close and would start giggling with every "bink!". By the end of the evening he was saying "bink" every other word. And he managed to say "bye bye Jen!" when I left. Despite all my best intentions to squelch any maternal instinct and decide that I dont want kids because parents inevitably fuck up I'm pretty sure I'm wrong. If I ever get married I know I will become a mom at some point, its just in my blood. Dammit the cuteness was too much and it hooked me.
Then we came home to a home made meal of mac and cheese and chicken fingers kindly prepared by my other brother Geoff. It was yummy. I quickly polished off my meal so that Geoff and I could see Robots. I thought it was kind of ok at best. Geoff and I just stayed up and watched TV for a little while after that.
Sunday I slept in and just hung out and had a very late breakfast with my family. Then Jenn and I decided to go to the Youth Fair before making our trek back to Gainesville. It was pretty much how I remembered it. Just a fun, crowded, brightly colored, questionably safe carnival. We went on many rides- small coasters, swings, the circular spinning rides like The Polar Express and the Himalaya. My favorite is their drop of death. Just one straight free fall down. My least favorite and one I will NOT be riding again (at least on the end) is Pharaoh's Fury. I just always feel like I'm going to fall out of it. We very much wanted to get shirts like the ones we had when we were kids. The white persian cat with the red rose and your name airbrushed on. But no luck finding our retro shirt fantasies. We did see some other cats however, some big ones. Some endangered species group had a set up and they had a Florida panther, a tiger, a young leopard and two lions in cages. And we were able to get about two or three feet away from the cages. I have never been that close to big cats and they really are impressive. They are beautiful but you cant help but realize, especially after seeing how massive their paws are in person, that these are lovely wild creatures that could rip my face off if they so chose. They also had lemurs that were very cute. After enough rides and enough fair food we started our journey home and just talked most of the way about everything the way you do when you are on a road trip with a buddy.
Yeah, I had a a really grateful weekend if that makes sense. One that reminded me how much I love my family, how much good there really is in my home town, how much fun a weekend of possibilities can be and how great it is to have a person you can happily spend six hours in a car with. Makes me want to go on another trip this weekend. Anyone interested?
Vizcaya itself is beautiful as well. What was really impressive to me was the structure itself, not its contents. Vizcaya is a mansion styled after an Italian palazzo. It has a courtyard in the center open to both floors (and the sky at one point) that takes up a good amount of the overall space. The home had intricate marble floors, stonework in so many colors and patterns. Most of the courtyard used carved limestone or coral rock. I loved that so much stone was used because it made it feel organic. It also was nice that it was so cold to the touch given Florida weather. The ceilings were also incredible. Complicated patterns, motifs running throughout -lots of mythical creatures or ocean creatures. The furniture and decorative pieces were a bit more ornate and over the top than I'd prefer, but overall it was lovely. The gardens were as impressive as the house. And having that great ocean view doesn't hurt either. I didn't realize how much I missed the ocean. I wound up walking over to the gazebo that is at the end of a short pier and taking off my shoes and just sitting with my feet in the saltwater for a while. It was all I could do to stop myself from jumping in. I guess there is a little bit of Miami girl still in me.
After that we went to my brother's house to visit with him, his wife Liz and their son Layne. He's 2 and has the cutest mop of perfect light blond hair. I'm never really sure how to interact with him at first because I know I'm just a stranger to him and I dont want to just pick him up and play with him because I dont assume he's comfortable with that. I tend to let him come to me after a little while. eventually he started sitting on my lap and showing me toy cars. Greg's coffee table isn't completely level so the toy car would roll on its own into a book on the table. Every time it neared the book I would open my mouth and sigh in anticipation and say "BINK!" when it actually hit. He liked this very much and kept getting the car ready and he would look at me when it got close and would start giggling with every "bink!". By the end of the evening he was saying "bink" every other word. And he managed to say "bye bye Jen!" when I left. Despite all my best intentions to squelch any maternal instinct and decide that I dont want kids because parents inevitably fuck up I'm pretty sure I'm wrong. If I ever get married I know I will become a mom at some point, its just in my blood. Dammit the cuteness was too much and it hooked me.
Then we came home to a home made meal of mac and cheese and chicken fingers kindly prepared by my other brother Geoff. It was yummy. I quickly polished off my meal so that Geoff and I could see Robots. I thought it was kind of ok at best. Geoff and I just stayed up and watched TV for a little while after that.
Sunday I slept in and just hung out and had a very late breakfast with my family. Then Jenn and I decided to go to the Youth Fair before making our trek back to Gainesville. It was pretty much how I remembered it. Just a fun, crowded, brightly colored, questionably safe carnival. We went on many rides- small coasters, swings, the circular spinning rides like The Polar Express and the Himalaya. My favorite is their drop of death. Just one straight free fall down. My least favorite and one I will NOT be riding again (at least on the end) is Pharaoh's Fury. I just always feel like I'm going to fall out of it. We very much wanted to get shirts like the ones we had when we were kids. The white persian cat with the red rose and your name airbrushed on. But no luck finding our retro shirt fantasies. We did see some other cats however, some big ones. Some endangered species group had a set up and they had a Florida panther, a tiger, a young leopard and two lions in cages. And we were able to get about two or three feet away from the cages. I have never been that close to big cats and they really are impressive. They are beautiful but you cant help but realize, especially after seeing how massive their paws are in person, that these are lovely wild creatures that could rip my face off if they so chose. They also had lemurs that were very cute. After enough rides and enough fair food we started our journey home and just talked most of the way about everything the way you do when you are on a road trip with a buddy.
Yeah, I had a a really grateful weekend if that makes sense. One that reminded me how much I love my family, how much good there really is in my home town, how much fun a weekend of possibilities can be and how great it is to have a person you can happily spend six hours in a car with. Makes me want to go on another trip this weekend. Anyone interested?